Clubs ee of pensions

Brandishing crutches, canes
italian veterans staged angry

Pensions. Twenty demonstrators
gendarmerie charged into the

demonstrations in front of the office
of Premier De Gasperi in Rome, protesting meagre government

gathering.

and wooden legs, 2,000 wounded

were injured when club-swinging

‘Sight unseen’ rule
in CSU leader’s ‘trial’

By TOM CARLSON

This is the story of how a nationally known Canadian unionist was
ed to three years in the penitentiary.
Lakes director of the Canadian Seamen’s Union (AFL), drew that

sentence on the “evidence” of a witness who did not know him from a

senténced

member of the jury.

“Do you see Mike Jackson in
the courtroom,” was the ques-
tion the prosecuting attorney
asked Clarence Moore, chief wit-
ness for the steamship company
which laid the ‘boarding’ charge
against Jackson. The prosecutor.
urged Moore to take his time,
to survey the room carefully be-
fore answering.

Moore’s eyes swept the counsel
table, the prisoner’s box, the
court officials, the body of the
courtroom. To obtain a better
view, he walked to the prisoner’s
box, stood directly in front of

- Jackson and continued to sur-

vey the scene, Jackson oblig-
ingly turned around as if to
assist Moore to pick out the
right man. *

After a prolonged scrutiny,
Moore finally selected Archie
Balk Jr., a member of the jury,
as being Jackson! _

Despite this “eyewitness” evi-
dence, the court sentenced Jackson
to three years in the penitentiary
for allegedly “boarding” a vessél

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carrying a cargo of scabs during
last summers’ CSU strike. Under
the Canada shipping act, a “board-
ing’ charge is tantamount to
“trespassing” on land. —

UE chief declares industry can
meet wage hikes from tax savings

=3
—TORONTO

Arguments presented to the prices commission in Ottawa by the Canadian Manufacturers’ Asso-
ciation and the Chamber of Commerce have been branded as “‘part of a plot to keep profits at their
present all-time peak,’’ and as “an attempt to whitewash a criminal attack by business upon the living

Standards of the Canadian people.”

These charges were made by
C. S, Jackson, Canadian president
of the United Electrical Workers
Union (CIO) in a statement from
UE District office here.

Jackson denies that the simple

TLC urges wage hoist,

CCL asks “cold war’ fare
—_OTTAWA

Both wage boosts and price con-
trol are essential to the Canadian
people, the Trades and Labor Con-

gress, parent body of AFL unions
here, informed the government
price commission in a_ statement
announcing that a national cam-
paign for higher wages will begin
at once,

The TLC brief, presented by
President Perey Bengough and
Secretary-treasurer J. W. Buckley,
was in vivid contrast to another
document submitted by the Can-
adian Congress of Labor, parent
body of CIO unions in Canada.
The CCL recommendations argued
for price controls only, without
mentioning higher wages, and
motivated its request politically by
saying price control was necessary
for the “cold war’ against “com-
munism,”

The TLC wage-boost said simply
that the workers do not have
enough to live on. Giving notice
that it would not only submit
petitions but would act, the brief
said: “It is urgently necessary, in
the face of the price crisis now at
hand, to advance and_ secure,
through the power of our organiz-
ed strength, substantial wage in-
creases in all industries and
trades.”

Civic union

wage, secutily demands

Civic Employees Union local 28 (outside workers) is presenting

to all Wancouver civic boards 1949

an across the board wage boost of 25 cents (2)

men and foremen (3)
health scheme.

These demands were outlined
before Vancouver Trades and
Labor Council this week by union
secretary Jack Phillips.

Commenting on ‘city personnel
officer B. H.° Peterson’s pay and
job classification schedule (adopt-
ed by city council without union
approval this week), Phillips
stated flatly that the outside em-
ployees would not allow the per-
sonne] department to nullify the
rights of the union to \bargain
collectively on the wage needs
of its membership, ‘

Trades Council endorsed a
union proposal to be brought be-
fore city council next week ask-
ing the city fathers’ to seek a
charter amendment giving the
city clear legal authority +o
grant to civic employees the
same forms of union security as

union shop (

are permitted to other unions
under the ICA Act. |
Electricians delegates, support-

ing the motion, said their union
has union security clauses in
agreements with 52 municipalities
in B.C., and Vancouver is the
only municipality where they
have not been able to establish
such an agreement. |

Last year a _ two-faced legal
ruling from the Attorney-General’s
department cast doubt on the legal
right of the city. to grant * a,
union shop to civic workers.

Civic workers point out that
while steep price increases have

tell ILC of

contract proposals embracing (1)
adjustment for trades- |
4) increase in city’s share of union

made a 25 cents wage boost im-
perative for all members, discrim-
ination against skilled workers is
long overdue to be abolished.

For example electricians work-
ing for the city receive 50 cents
an hour less than electricians
working with contractors. -

These discriminatory rates were
established by what was termed
an “impartial commission” several
years ago. :

One reason for workers’ suspi-|
cion of Peterson’s department is
that they scent in it many aromas
exuded by the “impartial commis-
sion.”

Following ‘a long period of
across the board wage boosts, the
need to remove discrimination
against skilled workers has_ be-
come a sharp problem for many
unions covering entire industries.

Other civic unions are scheduled
to put forward pay demands this
year, and firemen are now formu-
lating their proposals.

‘ Nominations of candidates for
Trades Council office. were: presi-
dent—-Birt Showler, H. D. Foster,
T. Alsbury; vice-president—T, Als-
bury, W. Rigby; secretary-treasur-
er—R. K. Gervin; legislative com-
mittee—-S. Shearer, T. Parkin, J.
Irving; grievance committee—R.
Cormack, G. Gee, Bert Wybrew;
press committee—H. Bird; organ-
‘ization committee — C. Herrett;

warden—J!. Stevenson.

law of supply and demand has been
responsible for the extent to

which prices have risen. He also
denies that es
higher labor
costs are a
major consider-
ation.
He stresses
that “arbitrary

price-fixing and
monopoly prac-
tices are the
prime factors in
rising prices, A
high degree of
centralization of
control in manufacturing and
marketing makes this possible.

“Between 1939 and 1946 corpor-
ate profits before taxes had risen
195 percent; all investment income
had risen 175 percent; while total
labor income rose only 107 per-
cent.

“A&A later compilation by the same
authority (Bank of Canada sur-
vey) covering 665 companies for
the year 1947, showed profits be-
fore taxes up another 26 percent
above 1946. f

“A substantial percentage of
corporate ¢éoncerns in Canada
paid extra dividends in 1948.

“Financial Post Corporation Ser-
vice has issued a list of corpora-
tions which announced regular
dividend payments between No-
vember 29 and December 13, 1948.
On this list are Some twenty con-

cerns paying “extras’ from 50

percent to 400 percent above the

regular dividend. bales
“Extremely high allotments

seen in company financial state-
ments for inventory, as well as
other items dependent upon un-
divided profits, show that business
has been piling up abnormal re-
serves during the present period
of run-away prices.”

On the other’ hand, the union
points out, living standards are
steadily declining in Canada.

“The means by which. price in
creases have been engineered in
some cases was to incorporate the
previous excise tax of 15 to 25
percent into the price’ of the
article when the tax was lifted
last July. For example, an elec-
tric refrigerator in a popular
model cost $419 before the tax was
removed. Now, with the tax off,
this same article costs $369,

“In this case half of what was
formerly the tax portion of the
price is being pocketed by the
manufacturer without benefit to
the buying public. The same
manufacturér, even if he pleads
that he has increased wages of
his employees, is making an un-
precedented profit on the com-
modity. The 15 to 25 percent
of the selling price would pay
the expense of a wage increase
five to ten times over.

“Among the arguments employed
by the Chamber of Commerce in
its brief was one claiming that
‘production per man-hour had
fallen between 1939 and 1948 due
to shorter hours, more holidays,
and other factors’.”

Such a statement, the UE-CIO
charges, is in direct contradiction
to facts.

“In a survey conducted by the
business magazine Factory Man-
agement and Maintenance a group
of electrical manufacturers ad-
mitted that production per man-
hour had actually increased 19.3
percent between January, 1946,
and August, 1948.” :

The long range trend of “real”
wages, i. what earnings will
buy, can be pictured as declining
in direct proportion to the rate

of increase of corporate
the union declares.

profits,

“Health officials and community

welfare bodies are continually
warning of dangers due to in-
adequate diets forced upon the

low-income groups by heartless
boosting of prices. This is par-
ticularly marked by the drop in
milk consumption since its price
was raised.

“It is for these reasons that
organized labot in Canada has

been forced to seek higher wages,
and why labor urges the govern-
ment to restrict profits through
taxes and price controls, thus
making possible a more equitable
division of the national income
as between labor and capital, and
a standard of living more in
keeping with our great productiv-
ity. .

“The pressure-group tactics of
organized businessmen will in no
wise serve the general interest of
the nation by presenting false and
misleading arguments before this
important parliamentary prices
commission.”

Coal mines returned
to nazi collaborators

—PARIS

The French government has
returned the great coal mines at
Le Creuzot, wationalized after
V-E day, to the Schneider trust
which owned them before the
war. The Schneider interests
were deeply involved in collab-
oration with the Nazis during
the wartime occupation.

U.S. pressure has been instru-
mental in reversing the French
trend toward full nationalization
of basic industries, which was
at its peak in 1945. Nationaliza-
tion already decreed was ad-
ministered ‘in a half-hearted,
manner after Marshall Plan aid
began.

In the mining industry, for
instance, former owners remain-
ed in top management posts and
were paid a bonus on each ton
of coal extracted. The precess
of returning them to their pre-

vious power has now begun
openly,

vy

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 7%, 1949 — PAGE 6

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